The Past Tense and Temporal Verb Meanings in a Contextual Frame

Bibliographic Data

ID10818101
AuthorsEli Hinkel (corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume31
Issue2
Pages289
Publication date1997-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTESOL Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0039-8322 • E-ISSN: 1545-7249
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3588048
OpenAlexW2030074043
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited11

The learning of English past tense meanings and uses has been recognized as a complex issue in the acquisition of an L2. Temporal discourse frames require particular verb tenses, but if the contextual linguistic features of a discourse event are framed differently by members of various cultures, different interpretations of the meanings situated in the frame may result. Based on students' writing and responses to cloze passages framed for past tense, this study examines how speakers of American English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Indonesian establish and maintain contextual temporality in discourse. The findings of this study indicate that what represents a past-time discourse frame is not always obvious and that emphasizing the past-time adverbial markers may not be sufficient to effectively teach the uses and contexts of the past tense. Although it is probably true that nonnative speakers (NNSs) need to acquire new ways of expressing temporal relationships, it appears that NNSs may also need to develop new conceptualizations of the extent and boundaries of time and tense within contextual frames

Frame (networking) · Linguistics · Past tense · Verb · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Philosophy · Psychology · Second Language Acquisition and Learning

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